Sean Adams
Month
Here’s the 2017 edition of my Music for Office Workers series. It’s a playlist of gently euphoric electronic soundscapes, ambient gems, and modern classical compositioto ease you into or enliven your work day, without distracting you.
Tracklisting to kick it off - I’ll update it each time I discover something worth adding so check back throughout the year.
Mary Lattimore - It Was Late and We Watched the Motel Burn
Jean-Michel Blais & CFCF - In a Landscape - Rework
Earlham Mystics - Hera
Clark - Peak Magnetic
Kelly Lee Owens - CBM
Noveller - Rituals
Yann Novak - Surroundings
Nicolas Jaar - Fight
New Jackson - Electric Blue - Original
R.Seiliog - Myopia
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - We Forget Who We Are
A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Gare du Nord, Pt. 1
Toydrum - I’ve Got a Future - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis Rework
William Ryan Fritch - Tending the Herd
Jean-Michel Blais & CFCF - Hasselblad 1
Ben Frost - Welcome To Fortitude
Agnes Obel - Citizen Of Glass - Instrumental
The Bug & Earth - Agoraphobia
Nathan Fake;Prurient - DEGREELESSNESS
Mary Lattimore - Wawa by the Ocean
The Black Madonna - He Is the Voice I Hear
Lambert - Sweet Apocalypse
Sebastian Plano - Blue Loving Serotonin
Give this a spin when you get a moment. The first taste of Juanita Stein from Howling Bells’ debut solo album (due in Spring 2017) that has all kinds of dark-country vibes. This one is a dreamy alt-Xmas track. You can follow her on Tumblr here: http://www.juanitastein.com
Had a bit of an exorcism ahead of Friday’s series of conversations I’m charing at SoundCity+.
It’s your weekly dose of the best new independent music, curated by Drowned in Sound’s editor Sean Adams. Today is a bank holiday in the UK so a full post and updated playlists on all services are coming tomorrow but for now here’s the updated Spotify playlist with 19 new tracks.
Was into the last album for all of its British Panic at the Disco wonder, have been obsessed with the recent singles, but wrote a review focussing on my favourite tracks on the record that reminded me of M83’s instrumental period before they got massive and there’s even some Sigur Ros-like guitars on it. Really taken aback by that suite of songs at the heart of the record. A really special band who are far too easy to dismiss. This is quite likely to be one of my albums of the year.
“What’s sad is that women in particular must make extra efforts to hide the giddy fan inside in order to be taken seriously as journalists, or risk being reduced to an unprofessional groupie stereotype. It’s hard to imagine a woman writing Ernest Baker’s Drake profile without being accused of trying to sleep with him. It’s assumed that our interest in music is more about image than it is the actual creative product, and that’s just not true.”
Edwin Schroter from PIAS ponders ’Is music ready for its craft beer moment?‘ (via independentmusicmonday)
Definitely feels like it is to me.
19 new additions to the playlist this week including Lizzo, Lush, Sleater-Kinney, The Anchoress, New Order, EMA, Emmy the Great, and more: http://independentmusicmonday.tumblr.com
It’s listmaassss! Here’s a special radio-show-as-playlist best songs of 2015 show from Danielle Perry and me.
#NowPlaying “You and Only You” by @The_Anchoress ft @MANSUNband’s Paul Draper
#NowPlaying #IndependentMusicMonday by me featuring the best new independent releases.
#NowPlaying “Popular” by @The_Anchoress
‘Popular’ by The Anchoress.
Alongside running Drowned in Sound, three years ago I started an artist management company. Having run the DiS label (born out of desire to turn my enthusiasm into more than pixels), and dabbling in helping out acts in the past, it seemed like the next logical step. In the past few years, I’ve learnt a lot more about the machinations of the music industry than at any other time I’ve been involved in The Biz.
A photo posted by Ed Harcourt (@edharcourt) on Oct 9, 2015 at 1:31pm PDT
I’ve been working with songwriter of (ill) repute, Mr Ed Harcourt. I set-up CCCLX to manage him and release the recorded-in-an-evening-at-Abbey-Road album Back Into The Woods (Listen: Spotify, Apple Music), which did rather well. So well in fact that Burberry invited him to perform at their fashion week shows in London and Shanghai, then comissioned him to write a song especially for their festival campaign.
Ed has nearly finished his 7th album with Flood (who’s an absolute genius, and has produced most of my favourite albums, including records by NiN, PJ Harvey, Depeche Mode and more!) and he’s just signed to Polydor - currently home to some of the biggest and best acts in the world, including Lana Del Rey, Kendrick Lamar, James Blake, Years & Years, Carly Rae Jepsen, The 1975 and lots more. The album is nearly done and will be out sometime in 2016. Ed is currently co-writing and producing Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s new album, playing piano for Marianne Faithfull across Europe, has recently joined The Libertines for their Glastonbury & Reading headline performances, and is co-curating a special Lee Hazlewood evening at the Barbican in London on Oct 25th (details).
I recently took on my second management client: The Anchoress. NPR’s Ann Powers described her as “Wales’s (much more explicitly feminist) answer to Lana Del Rey.” The Guardian recently spoke to her about being a polymath as she’s got a PhD, a book about epic poetry out on Bloomsbury, performs with Simple Minds and lots more.
The Anchoress just signed to Kscope. They’re a fantastic independent label that is home to Grammy nominated Steven Wilson, Mercury Prize nominees Sweet Billy Pilgrim, and British rock gods Anathema.
The Anchoress’ debut album Confessions Of A Romance Novelist will be released on Jan 8th 2016. A first taste of the album hit the web a few days ago, and it has already been covered by The Quietus, TheLineofBestFit, GodIsInTheTV, LouderThanWar, and lots more. In fact, 'Popular’ is so - errrr - popular that it’s currently in the top 5 of the Hype Machine. If you like the idea of a modern twist on Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, then you’ll love it. In the coming weeks, we will be announcing the first single from the album and more details about the album release.
Follow her adventures on Twitter @The_Anchoress, facebook.com/theanchoress, Instagram, and Tumblr.
You can pre-order the album on iTunes (there will be an instant grat track every few weeks!) or as a deluxe gatefold CD with 20 page booklet from Burning Shed or stream the track on Spotify here or on Soundcloud here:
A man with no exit strategy watches his crystal balls illuminate.
I didn’t really get the fuss about ‘Video Games’ at the time, but adored 'Summertime Sadness’ and was glad that an artist as intriguing as her existed. That first album sold 7million copies. This new LP is - as you’d expect from an artist evolving - a far better record. It’s so strangely intimate in headphones that it feels like it’s a heart to heart from her empty mansion on a hill direct to you. I wrote back to Lana to say thank you and more.
Hear our interview with @Metric alongside their new album Pagans in Vegas.
After a break of almost 7 years, the DiS podcast is back.
I roped in some old friends (Metric were signed to the DiS label for a brief period of time) to join me as special guests for this pilot show. We chat about their new album Pagans in Vegas and its follow-up which they’ve been recording on the road, plus Danielle Perry from Absolute Radio, and DiS’ Marc Burrows help me to predict who might win at tomorrow night’s AIM Independent Music awards… And we chatted a bit about how bonkers it is that Bowie is doing the score for the Spongebob musical.
Feedback is welcomed: Is this the worst podcast you’ve ever heard?